With belated horror sequel 28 Years Later now confirmed as happening, Cillian Murphy has confirmed that he’s willing to reprise his role.
Just a few days ago, it was confirmed that a third film in the 28 series would be happening. The renowned British horror series will return with the original creative partnership of Danny Boyle and Alex Garland as director and writer, respectively. Even better, the series’ return could well be the beginning of a trilogy. The first of the new films will be 28 Years Later.
After years of waiting, we’ve been quite spoiled for good news on this front of late, haven’t we?
Still, there’s more to celebrate though, as the return of Cillian Murphy is also a distinct possibility. We knew that he would be involved in the new series as an executive producer, but Variety has just published an interview from December (before the film’s announcement) where Murphy states that “I’m available,” in response to a question regarding whether he’d return for another film in the series.
Playing the lead in 28 Days Later certainly elevated Murphy’s career, and he also reveals in the interview that the role is one that continues to pay off for him, including being the reason why he got into the room with Christopher Nolan for Oppenheimer. “Chris Nolan saw that movie and all of a sudden, I had a meeting with Chris,” he states in the interview. “We met and chatted and that was the initial beginning of the relationship with Chris.”
While this is nothing like an official confirmation, there’s every chance this could happen.
From a commercial point of view, Murphy was the lead in Oppenheimer, one of last year’s highest-profile films, he may well snag this year’s Best Actor Oscar.
Most importantly though, his character in 28 Years Later would be really interesting to revisit from a storytelling perspective. What does three decades of living in a zombie apocalypse do to somebody? Hopefully, Murphy will be given the chance to tell that tale onscreen. While he does have Steven Knight’s Peaky Blinders movie to shoot at some point, we don’t quite know when that one is going in front of cameras, but we’ll certainly bring you more on 28 Years Later as we hear it.
